Saturday, the Thirteenth

Partying on Saturday nights has never been a routine for me. In my childhood, I found myself at my neighbour's house by seven-thirty pm waiting for our music teacher to come. Classes took up rest of the night, often stretching to ten o clock or beyond. In Bangalore, I went to my aunt's place on Saturday evenings and spent most of the weekend lying down on the sofa or the bed, and dragging myself to the dining table for meals. On such Saturday nights, I would wait for my uncle and aunt to finish their nightly-TV-watching, and settle down into one of the English movie channels.

On this particular Saturday night - it was the thirteenth of either April or May, I can't recollect - I watched this particularly nondescript movie called Big Bully. (I would have forgotten this movie completely if I hadn't watched the Blessy's brilliant Bhramaram that dealt with a similar theme in a much more nuanced manner.) After the movie, I groggily made my way to the loo, and then to the bed.

It was a double-bed parallel to the wall. I slept on the edge and there was enough space for someone to sleep behind me. I was just about asleep when I felt someone climb over me and sleep on the other side. My cousin was still staying with her parents then, and I presumed it might be her. I wanted to check anyway. I opened my eyes, I was definitely awake, but I felt like my body was bound to the bed. I couldn't move. When this temporary paralysis lifted, I got up and found the room empty. Out of curiosity, I walked into the hall, a long room with a wide window at the other end, moonlight peering through the translucent glass.

There she was, a short woman silhouetted against the window, walking ever so slowly and disappearing into the kitchen. I went back to my room, turned the light on, lay staring at the ceiling for a while until I dozed off.

Next morning, at the breakfast table, my aunt asked me why the light was on all night. I told her this story. She looked at me, surprised, and said, "You know, many years ago, your Mama also had the same experience - he said someone was in the room, and he couldn't get up!" My uncle wondered whether I saw his deceased sister, who was of similar physique as the woman I described.
***

Today, five years later, I get a mail from my cousin with a link to this article. Two extracts:

"7. Sleepy hallucinations
We're all used to seeing strange things in our dreams, but what about when we're not dreaming? So-called hypnagogic hallucinations occur during the transition from wakefulness to sleep (just after our head hits the pillow). And hypnopompic hallucinations hit during the waking-up process. People report hearing voices, feeling phantom sensations and seeing people or strange objects in their rooms. Bugs or animals crawling on the walls are a common vision, said Neil Kline, a sleep physician and representative of the ASA."

About sleep paralysis:

"Sleep paralysis

During REM sleep, dream activity ramps up and the voluntary muscles of the body become immobile. This temporary paralysis keeps us from acting out our dreams and hurting ourselves. Sometimes, though, the paralysis persists even after the person wakes up. "You know you're awake and you want to move," Kline said. "But you just can't."Even worse, sleep paralysis often coincides with number 7 on our list: hallucinations. In one 1999 study published in the Journal of Sleep Research, 75 percent of college students who'd experienced sleep paralysis reported simultaneous hallucinations. And these hallucinations, when they occur with sleep paralysis, are no picnic; people commonly report sensing an evil presence, along with a feeling of being crushed or choked. That sensation has given sleep paralysis a place in folklore worldwide. Newfoundlanders know it as the "Old Hag." In China, it's the "ghost pressing down on you." And in Mexico, it's known by the idiom "subirse el muerto," or "the dead climb on top of you.""

Spooky.